


Breathe

by ChirpB



Series: Say My Name [5]
Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety, Asthma, Asthma Attacks, Crime Fighting, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Fighting, Healer Yunho, Heavy Angst, I'm Sorry, M/M, Not Beta Read, OC is the Villain, Platonic Relationships, Sick Character, Sickfic, Strong Jongho, Superheroes, We Die Like Men, Whump, Yeosang-centric, but not really, kind of, soft, yeosang is sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:21:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22250092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChirpB/pseuds/ChirpB
Summary: “If it happens to be Plague, that means Yeosang will have the best chance against him?”Yeosang straightened up with wide eyes and whipped his head towards his leader.“I’m sorry. Mind repeating that statement you just made, hyung?”Hongjoong had the audacity to smirk at Yeosang. “You’re our best bet against Plague because you can turn into smoke. Which also means that he can’t touch you. Also meaning that he can’t make you sick.”Yeosang stood up, shaking a little bit from the sudden rush of anxiety he got from the idea of him fighting against a villain alone.“Well...I can’t be the only one, right?”----------------Yeosang's a hero named Phantom.He wasn't sure if this was really his thing.(Please read the previous works in the series for context)
Relationships: Choi San/Jung Wooyoung, Established Choi San/Jung Wooyoung - Relationship, Established Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa - Relationship, Jeong Yunho & Kang Yeosang, Kang Yeosang & Park Seonghwa, Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa, Platonic Kang Yeosang Relationships
Series: Say My Name [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1560964
Comments: 20
Kudos: 153





	1. Breathe Pt. 1

**Author's Note:**

> It got too long. College is a struggle. So is motivation.
> 
> Next chapter will be out soon.
> 
> I'm not actually super happy with this one, so if you have any feedback, I'd love to hear it.
> 
> Enjoy!

“So, we don’t know why they suddenly got sick during their mission?”

Yeosang was sitting on the couch in the basement living room, with Jongho next to him, listening to his team talk about the current situation they had.

San, Mingi, and Wooyoung were all sick with the flu.

Yeosang felt bad for San. The boy just couldn’t seem to catch a break. It had only been a little over a week since the whole ordeal with the exploding Klepto and the bleeding out San.

Yeosang kept tuning into his hyungs’ conversation about the suddenly sick heroes.

“Don’t you remember what happened to Jongho when we both fought the villain who called himself Plague?” Hongjoong brought up. Yeosang noticed Jongho cringe at the memory. Jongho was never sick, so when Plague had given him a sickness, the younger hated it a lot. Yeosang was there to hear the younger’s complaints.

Seonghwa kept pacing around the room with his hands on his hips. “Can we even confirm that it’s the same sickness that Jongho had? And how did they even get in contact with Plague? This was supposed to be an easy mission for them,” Seonghwa asked, running a hand through his pitch black hair.

“It’s the same flu, just varying degrees of it. You know missions can go wonky, hyung. Someone must’ve sent Plague to interfere,” Yunho brought up from the kitchen, that was connected to the living room. Yeosang looked to see the healer leaning against the counter with a newly made sandwich in his hand.

“But what if it wasn’t Plague?”

No one spoke up at Seonghwa’s question for a couple seconds. Yeosang felt unease settle in his stomach.

Hongjoong cleared his throat. “We can’t only worry if it isn’t him. We just have to do the best with what information we can,” He paused, stood up from the wall he leaned against and walked over to a frantic looking Seonghwa and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t let him get in your head, okay? We’ll figure it out.”

Yeosang didn’t know who “he” was exactly, but based on Yunho’s pause mid bite and Seonghwa tensing up, the best guess was probably Havoc.

“But,” Hongjoong emphasized, stepping away from the oldest boy, “If it happens to be Plague, that means Yeosang will have the best chance against him?”

Yeosang straightened up with wide eyes and whipped his head towards his leader.

“I’m sorry. Mind repeating that statement you just made, hyung?”

Hongjoong had the audacity to smirk at Yeosang. “You’re our best bet against Plague because you can turn into smoke. Which also means that he can’t touch you. Also meaning that he can’t make you sick.”

Yeosang stood up, shaking a little bit from the sudden rush of anxiety he got from the idea of him fighting against a villain alone.

“Well...I can’t be the only one, right?” Yeosang asked, his voice giving away that he was really anxious about it. He glanced back and forth between Hongjoong, Seonghwa, and Yunho, who had resumed eating his sandwich after shaking his head. Jongho stood up and placed a hand on Yeosang’s shoulder.

“You’re right, but you do have the best bet. I can make my skin electrify in case he touches me, but I would still become sick from that limited contact. What about you, Yunho?” Hongjoong said, holding out his hand for Seonghwa to take. The older did so and Yeosang noticed the corners of his mouth turn up slightly.

“Healing wounds are one thing, hyung. Sickness is on another level. I can’t heal sickness as easily as I can with wounds. It takes a lot more energy. Hence why I’m currently trying to eat and restore some energy,” Yunho pointed out, taking a bite of his sandwich to prove a point.

Yeosang swallowed and made eye contact with Hongjoong, “Couldn’t Yunho track him down so we could get it over with?”

Yeosang wasn’t expecting Yunho to freeze and stare at the ground with a saddened expression. He must’ve said something wrong. Why did he always do that?

“No, we can’t do that. We need Yunho here to heal people for now,” Hongjoong said sternly to Yeosang, making the latter shrink back at the tone. “Are you okay with staying here to do that, Yunho?”

Yeosang could see Yunho’s gaze flicker from the floor to Yeosang and then to Hongjoong. He gave a small nod and slowly took another bite of his sandwich.

“We can talk about all of this later. Yunho, when you’re feeling up to it, can you go try and heal them a bit more? Especially Mingi. If I knew they would encounter Plague, I wouldn't have let him and his bare hecking arms out there to fight him,” Hongjoong asked, pinching the bridge of his nose. 

Yunho hummed in acknowledgement and plopped down on the sectional.

Yeosang noticed that his foot was tapping and tried to stop it.

He didn’t really know why he was getting so anxious. Something about the pressure of being the only one who had the best chance against a villain just made Yeosang very nervous and sort of scared.

Seonghwa seemed to notice Yeosang’s discomfort and walked to stand next to the younger. Yeosang looked up into Seonghwa’s dark brown eyes with a confused expression.

“You know you won’t be alone, right? We’re only saying you have the best chance because you’re intangible. We aren’t. We would never make you fight alone, Yeosang.”

Yeosang let out a breath he wasn’t aware he was holding. “I know, hyung. I’m just getting worked up for no reason,” Yeosang tried to brush of the older’s concern.

Hongjoong clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention. “Well, now that we’ve talked professionally enough, I think we should all take a couple hours to relax, or something,” he said with a smile that Yeosang could tell was little forced on his face.

“Uh-huh, sure,  _ relax _ . That’s totally what you and Seonghwa-hyung are gonna do, right?” Jongho quipped, wiggling his eyebrows at the oldest two. Yunho burst out laughing, Hongjoong started towards Jongho, but was caught by a red-faced Seonghwa. Yeosang let out a giggle at that.

Apparently Yeosang didn’t giggle enough, because everyone suddenly froze and looked at him with shocked expressions. After a couple seconds of shocked silence, everyone burst out into laughter.

Yeosang could feel his face heat up in embarrassment.

“Well,” Hongjoong started, still chuckling, “Now that that’s happened, I’m gonna go relax. Like  _ actually _ relax, Jongho,” Jongho held his hands up in defense, “Seonghwa, care to join me for a nap?”

Yeosang saw Seonghwa smirk and start towards the stairs with Hongjoong following after him.

The other boys all watched them walk away quietly and didn’t say anything until they were supposedly out of earshot.

“‘Nap’, they say,” Jongho says, making air-quotes with his fingers. Yeosang let out a breathy laugh and Yunho giggled.

Yeosang ended up sitting back down on the sectional in between the other two. He pulled out his phone and scrolled through his pinterest (There were memes on there, don’t judge). Several moments passed in silence before Yunho spoke up.

“Does anyone else think it’s weird that Hongjoong hasn’t found any kind of mission for us? I mean, the last one the team had was the night after Argo showed up, right?” Yunho asked.

Yeosang tilted his head, contemplating what he pointed out. 

That was the last mission and that was almost months ago. Usually they had one at least every two weeks. Maybe they just weren’t as needed or other teams like Stray Kids were taking care of them.

“Chan-hyung’s probably been getting the missions or something. That can happen sometimes,” Yeosang decided to point out. Yunho just gave him a shrug and went back to scrolling through his phone.

It was silent for several moments before Jongho stood up quickly and ran upstairs yelling, “I have an assignment due tonight that I forgot about!”

Yeosang smiled after him. Freshman year was always pretty rough with figuring out how to manage your time. Especially when you were a superhero. It was only about three in the afternoon, but it was probably better that Jongho get his stuff done earlier than later.

Yunho pushed himself off of the couch, catching Yeosang’s attention. “I’m gonna go check on the boys again. Hopefully they feel a little better now. I’m still not gonna let Mingi go on patrol with you though, and I doubt Hongjoong-hyung is gonna let you go by yourself with what’s been happening,” Yunho pointed out.

Yeosang gave him a shrug and looked back to his phone. “Well, he said it, I have the best chance against Plague, apparently,” Even when he mentioned the fact himself, it sent a spike of anxiety through him.

“I can tell you’re nervous about that fact, Yeosang, but you don’t need to worry as much as you think,” Yunho comforted.

“Is it that obvious?”

“Yes and no. I can hear your heartbeat, remember? Yours picked up a bit when you mentioned that,” Yunho explained to which Yeosang nodded in understanding. He could never hide anything from the older anyways, “Also the fact that you’re pretty bad at hiding when you’re nervous gave it away earlier.”

Yeosang whipped his head towards the older boy, “Rude, hyung.”

“What? You should know I'm right.”

Yeosang waved him off. “Go check on the others. They need your rudeness more than I do right now,” Yeosang said with a smirk.

Yunho let out a chuckle and began walking towards the hall that had the medical room in it, but stopped before he went down it. “You know...I’m still scared too. It’s not bad to be scared, you just need to talk it out with people,” he said in a soft voice.

Yeosang made eye-contact with him and gave him a small smile. “I’ll talk to someone. Don’t worry, hyung.”

Yunho nodded with a small smile and turned down the hallway again.

Yeosang felt really bad for him. He was the first one of the team that had to go through something with Havoc. It wasn’t something that the older could just brush off either.

Yeosang had stayed over for a couple nights after they had gotten Yunho back from Havoc. The older boy was so scarred by what happened that he would wake up screaming for the first couple nights. Yeosang would be woken up in his upstairs room by the panic and would make his way down to the couch he currently sat on just so he could be closer to Yunho.

He really didn’t do well whenever anyone on his team was really hurt or in the wrong state of mind. He wanted to be near enough to Yunho to make sure the older wouldn’t disappear.

It was an irrational, yet also not irrational fear he had.

He seemed to have a lot of those.

Yeosang laid down on the couch and scrolled through his twitter, looking at all of the posts about their team.

Multiple people were still tweeting about the whole Klepto incident at the park. He wasn’t there to see it, but apparently that guy blew up. Literally.

The others were probably scarred from that. Yeosang would be too.

There were some posts that had blurry pictures of some of his teammates in them. All of them during a fight of some sort.

There were people talking about how well they liked the teams powers and a lot of them were girls thristing over the dark and mysterious Nightwave. Yeosang let out a chuckle at that, because those girls would be disappointed to find out that not only was Nighwave in a relationship, but it was a relationship with Charge.

There were things like that about all of them. Especially Seonghwa, San, Wooyoung, and Mingi. Yeosang was almost glad he wasn’t the subject of those kinds of tweets.

Almost.

Any of the tweets about him, or rather Phantom, weren’t always nice. A lot of them complained about the fact that he wasn’t there to stop Klepto from exploding, or about how he wasn’t able to take on more than five guys by himself.

There was a whole twitter page dedicated to his leather jacket though. That was neat.

Yeosang kept scrolling through twitter, saving the picture of his team that were funny, and some good-looking ones. He didn’t know when, but he eventually drifted to sleep and his phone fell out of his hand.

\----------------------

“He’s worried about it, just so you know, hyung.”

“I know he is. We can’t really do anything to prove it to him. We can only assure him that he’ll be fine. That was how it was with me until I realized it myself.”

“I know, hyung. I just don’t want him to worry so much. He has enough to worry about.”

“So do you. So stop worrying about him.”

“Rude, but fair...He looks like he’s waking up.”

Yeosang peeled his eyes open and immediately worried about where his phone was. When he looked up from where he was, he saw that Seonghwa was standing there, Yeosang’s phone in hand.

“Hello, sleepyhead. I’m patrolling with you tonight,” Seonghwa said, throwing Yeosang’s phone back to the owner.

Yeosang nodded at him sleepily and stood up, almost falling over when he did so too quickly.

“Go get your stuff on, then we’re leaving. I’m giving you ten minutes,” Seonghwa instructed.

“Yessir,” Yeosang slurred together. He loved his oldest hyung, he really did, but when he was in hero mode, he got pretty bossy. Yeosang didn’t really mind it much though, It was just Wooyoung and Mingi who had to beware of his wrath.

Yeosang watched as Seonghwa walked upstairs, already in uniform. He got up and walked over to the armor room.

There were little cubbies with each of their names on them. Yeosang opened his and took out all of his uniform.

He peeled off the clothes he currently had on and put his uniform on. It consisted of black denim skinny jeans tucked into black vans. He did have a dark gray undershirt that covered his thin protective vest tucked into his pants, but that was covered by his apparently famous charcoal gray, leather jacket. He had black motorcycle gloves that covered his whole hand and a black mask that only covered the bottom half of his face.

He looked in the mirror they had in the room and slicked one side of his hair back and left the other side to fend for itself.

He put his other clothes into the cubby and closed it. He then walked out of the room and upstairs with several minutes to spare. Seonghwa was waiting and speaking softly with Hongjoong.

Yeosang cleared his throat to alert the oldest that he was ready to go.

Seonghwa’s uniform consisted of an outfit that was fairly similar to Yeosang’s. He had black skinny jeans, but they were shiny instead of denim. He had longer black boots that went up to a little above mid-shin. His shirt that covered his vest was a thin, black, v-neck. He had a long black leather trench coat with the sleeves rolled down to his wrists. He had on fingerless black gloves. The only reason they were fingerless was because the very top segment of the fingers were cut off. To top his uniform off, he had a black mask that was very similar to Yeosang’s own.

“Let’s go,” Seonghwa said. Hongjoong waved at the two as they walked to the garage, giving a small smile.

The two heroes got into the La Voiture Noir Bugatti Seonghwa reserved for missions. It was pretty fast, but they haven’t really had to use the fast yet. He used a different car for everyday stuff. No need to give away their identities because of a fancy car.

As they entered the city and parked the car in a hidden garage they had, Yeosang decided to bring up what had been bothering him all day.

“Hyung,” He waited for Seonghwa to lock the car, “I don’t-I don’t want to be the only one who can go up against Plague. You should be able to too, right? Your power is similar to mine.”

Yeosang waited for the older to answer as he followed Seonghwa into a nearby alley so they could get up to a convenient rooftop.

Yeosang was almost tempted to ask again once they began climbing up the fire escape that lead to the roof, but Seonghwa put his hand on a rung of the ladder and turned to Yeosang.

“Our powers are similar, but not similar enough in that aspect. We can both do the manifestation thing and make...tendril things. We can both turn into our respective element, but I can’t just be a shadow person like you can be a smoke person,” Seonghwa gestured vaguely with his free hand that wasn’t on the ladder.

“That was eloquent,” Yeosang joked. It may have been the wrong moment to joke, but he didn’t really care.

“Hey, don’t be mean. I may be older than you, but I’m not  _ that  _ much older. Don’t try to change the subject either. C’mon,” Seonghwa said as he started up the ladder. Yeosang sighed and followed after him.

The two reached the top and started walking towards the other end of the roof to begin their patrol.

“Phantom, we aren’t trying to pressure you with something like that. The only reason we pointed it out was because you play an important role in fighting him. Does that make sense? You won’t have to do it alone,” Seonghwa explained. 

Yeosang let out a huff and watched as Seonghwa got a running start and jumped to another roof. Yeosang sighed,  _ “Well, the pressure is still there, hyung,”  _ he thought to himself before running and jumping to the other roof. Pretty soon the two were running and jumping from one roof to another consistently.

Yeosang could fly, yeah, but that required him to use his power. The more he used his power, the more dangerous it would become for him. Mostly because his smoke makes him cough and stuff, but it’s especially bad because he also has asthma to go with it. So, that was great. He only really flew when they needed to be quick.

“Hyung...I know. I know I’m not alone, I just…” Yeosang trailed off, continuing to run and jump. Seonghwa stopped in his tracks and turned to face Yeosang, breathing heavily.

Yeosang stopped and tried to calm his breathing down, letting out a cough or two. He turned his attention to Seonghwa with a questioning look.

“Do you wanna tell me what you’re really thinking? Because I feel like it’s about more than just Plague.”

Yeosang felt his heart skip a beat. “I...It does have to do with Plague,” Yeosang paused, his gaze now towards the ground, “I...I don’t think I’m a great hero. I don’t think I’m confident enough.”

Once Yeosang had voiced what he was really thinking, he could almost literally feel his shoulders lift a bit. Almost like a weight was taken off of them. However, once he glanced up at his hyungs face, a weight ten times heavier settled on his shoulders.

“Wanna tell me why you feel like that?” Seonghwa asked, genuine concern in his voice.

“This probably isn’t the best time to talk about it. Sorry I brought it up. We should get going,” Yeosang started walking forward past Seonghwa, but he felt a hand on his shoulder hold him back. Yeosang froze and felt his heart rate pick up.

He turned slowly to face Seonghwa. He couldn’t see the older’s mouth, but his eyes told him everything. There was actual concern there, and Yeosang felt himself give way at the eye-contact.

He let out a shaky breath. “Are we really doing this now?” Seonghwa nodded with furrowed brows, still not saying anything.

“Fine. I don’t know if I should be a hero anymore because I’m not confident enough and I haven’t been helpful on missions. Apathy was able to take me out super easily, and she almost...did what she did to Brass to me. It’s only because of Brass, the one who we were trying to save, that she was stopped,” Yeosang could feel himself starting to tear up at the painful memory.

“I wasn’t able to help Crescent at all. Phoenix and Brass were able to help him immediately, you and Prowler were the ones who helped heal him, and all I did was pick up Crescent’s motorcycle from the park because it was left there,” his breathing was beginning to pick up, but he kept going, trying to voice as much as he could while he still had the confidence to.

“Brass is my best friend. I should’ve been there for him before he got taken advantage of. Instead, he had to save me! I feel like I’m not doing enough to be considered part of the team-” Yeosang was cut off by a warm pair of arms wrapped around him.

“I’m so sorry we didn’t realize you felt like that,” Seonghwa said, squeezing Yeosang tighter, “Think about it like this though: You tried to stop Brass from going off beforehand. Brass made a stupid decision even after he was warned. You were brave enough to go and help him and save him before it got any worse.”

“You make it sound like it was his fault for being in that situation,” Yeosang muttered into Seonghwa’s shoulder.

“In a way, it sort of is. He was warned several times to be careful and to be responsible. But like you said, he’s your friend, you know how bad he is at rationalizing. He went off on his own, which is normally fine, but this wasn’t normal. Apathy’s a monster and I’m glad she was stopped sooner than later,” Seonghwa tried to explain as well as he could.

The two separated and stood there. Yeosang looked at the ground while Seonghwa seemed to stare holes into his soul.

“That was only one thing though. He’s gotten in plenty of trouble before when I could’ve warned him or something. I-”

“I’m gonna tell you something that I haven't really told anyone else on the team,” Seonghwa cut him off. Yeosang’s attention was immediately grabbed at the mention of something like that. Seonghwa was a big enough mystery to the rest of the team, except maybe Hongjoong (for obvious reasons).

“I know this guy, let’s call him...Heechul,” Seonghwa suggested, and Yeosang nodded in understanding.

“Heechul was a guy who caused a lot of trouble. When I say a lot, I mean  _ a lot. _ There were times when he almost murdered innocent people,” Yeosang looked up and saw that Seonghwa was staring off with a sad expression on his face, “He got into a lot of trouble with heroes and was eventually betrayed by the one he used to look up to. He was hurt and lonely and angry, and that usually makes for a bad combination of stuff to be.”

Yeosang shifted where he stood. A little on edge with the way Seonghwa was telling the story. “What does this have to do with me, exactly?”

“Shh, I’m getting to that.” Yeosang closed his mouth and waited for the story to continue.

“Heechul was mad, but he later realized that he didn’t want to be a villain. The only problem was that he wouldn’t be able to help people with his powers he had. He had done too much evil. No one would ever accept him as a hero. That’s what he thought. He thought that until he was approached by a hero, someone he was acquainted with, and asked if he wanted to train with him to become a hero,” Yeosang could hear Seonghwa’s voice get a bit choked up. He wanted to go and comfort his hyung, but he felt that it wasn’t a good time.

“He agreed, but he struggled a lot with acceptance. He struggled to accept the fact that he wasn’t evil anymore and he struggled realizing that after a while, the other heroes had grown to love him. He thought he could never be loved. Heechul realized that he loved them back too. Now after so many years, he’s a well-known hero who has an amazing team that he loves while they love him back,” Seonghwa stopped and made eye-contact with Yeosang. Yeosang gulped, not really knowing what to say as Seonghwa gave him a smile that seemed to be filled with emotion.

“You haven’t done anything bad, but if a person like my friend can turn a complete one-eighty and become a hero, anything is possible. Yeah, it might take time, but you’ll get there. All of us are here to help you with your confidence.  _ I’m  _ here to help you with your confidence,” Seonghwa finished, stepping towards Yeosang and starts to go for a hug.

Yeosang almost said that he understands, but he saw something out of the corner of his eye coming towards Seonghwa from behind him.

Yeosang grabbed Seonghwa’s shoulders and pushed him out of the way, making him roll to the ground. After Seonghwa was out of the way, Yeosang immediately turned himself into smoke, still maintaining his form. You wouldn’t be able to tell that Yeosang was smoke just by looking at him, but he was just a Yeosang made of smoke.

Seonghwa rolled backwards, stood up and immediately melted into the shadows that were along the rooftop.

Yeosang quickly turned his attention to the attacker and promptly dodged a punch to his face.

He quickly recovered and saw who the attacker was.

Plague.

More and more punches and kicks were thrown Yeosang’s way, but he was able to get out of the way before they could touch him...well, smoke-him. His adrenaline wasn’t letting him think about the fact that Hongjoong was relying on him to be able to take this guy down.

Yeosang kept up the evasion until Plague seemed to grow tired. Plague paused after the most recent punch and Yeosang kept his stance ready. His adrenaline was slowly wearing out and he could feel anxiety start to kick in.

“You seem like you’re pretty good at running away. Is that all you can really do,  _ hero?” _ Plague sneered. Yeosang tried to keep his breathing even as the villain made jabs at him; which was hard considering his asthma was beginning to act up with his constant smoke form.

Yeosang saw something in the shadows move behind Plague. Probably Seonghwa. He had to try and keep Plagues attention away from-

Plague whipped around just as Seonghwa was about to make a move and threw a fist at the hero.

Seonghwa was able to stop the punch with his hand, but that lead to his barely exposed fingers touching Plague’s exposed hands.

Yeosang noticed right as it happened and notice Seonghwa immediately begin to stumble. Seonghwa never stumbles.

Yeosang quickly turned solid and swung his leg to kick Plague. His foot made contact with the villains ribs and sent him sprawling to the ground away from Seonghwa, who brought a shaking hand up to his head as soon as their hands stopped touching.

The villain began to stand up from his spot on the ground with a grunt.

Yeosang hesitated. He was the only one who could fight Plague, right? Should he go after him now? Should he get to Seonghwa and make-

His body moved on its own and took a couple steps towards Plague, but as soon as the villain saw him coming, he quickly recovered and started to run towards the edge of the rooftop.

Yeosang snapped out of his thoughts. “Hey!” he yelled, sprinting after him. Plague jumped off of the side just as Yeosang caught up to him.

Yeosang looked over the edge of the building and only saw an empty, dirty alley below.

His eyes scanned the whole area frantically, his breath picking up almost dangerously.

Yeosang heard the sound of a thud come from behind him. He turned to see Seonghwa on his hands and knees, squeezing his eyes shut.

The younger hero quickly ran to the older’s side, tears welling up in his eyes.

“Hyung! Hyung, how bad is it?” Yeosang asked Seonghwa frantically.

Seonghwa seemed to be breathing a little heavier and was holding his stomach. He shook his head in response to Yeosang’s question.

Yeosang’s throat felt like it was closing up and he let out a series of painful coughs.

“Hyung, I gotta-”  _ cough cough _ “I gotta get you home, okay?” Yeosang tried to get Seonghwa to respond to him, but the older was still squeezing his eyes tightly shut.

Yeosang stood up and pulled his hyung into a standing position. Seonghwa seemed to groan at the sudden movement.

“I’m sorry. Please just help me get you to the car,” Yeosang coughed out. He could hear himself wheeze. He wasn’t using his power for super long, but the constant movement made it pretty bad.

Seonghwa nodded and Yeosang put one of the older’s arms over his shoulders.

The two hobbled towards the edge of the roof and Yeosang decided it would be faster if he just turned mostly into smoke, but held onto Seonghwa while he flew them to the car.

It was gonna hurt, but he had to do it.

Yeosang turned his bottom half into smoke and secured Seonghwa in his arms. He began to fly in the direction of the car.

He could feel his lungs burn, but he pushed on anyways.

Seonghwa was basically unconscious as Yeosang landed them in front of the garage door. He turned solid again and slung his hyung’s arm over his shoulders and opened the door to the garage.

He lugged the older inside and made him lean against the side of the car. 

“Hyung-”  _ cough _ “I need your keys. I promise I won’t crass your prec-”  _ cough cough  _ “Precious car,” Yeosang struggled to say.

Seonghwa nodded weakly and raised a weak finger and pointed to what Yeosang assumed was supposed to be his pocket inside his coat.

Yeosang reach in the pocket and pulled out a fob. He then unlocked the car and sat Seonghwa in the passenger seat, who immediately checked out once his seatbelt was on.

The younger hero quickly made it to the driver’s seat and put his seatbelt on. He started the car and put his hands on the steering wheel when a sudden cough attack came over him.

His lungs felt like they were burning as he coughed his lungs out.

Once the attack was done, he rested his head on the steering wheel and tried to take deep breaths. He sat there for a couple minutes until he felt something touch his thigh. He whipped his gaze down and saw Seonghwa’s hand resting there.

“Sangie...you good?” Seonghwa seemed to struggle saying.

Yeosang nodded, “Y-yeah, just winded. I’m gonna contact Hongjoong and tell him we’re coming back.”

Seonghwa removed his hand and nodded in understanding.

Yeosang looked at the screen that was on the car’s dashboard and pressed buttons until he was calling Hongjoong.

It rung one time before their leader picked up. 

“Seonghwa? What’s up, babe?” Hongjoong asked, voice sleepy.

Yeosang forgot that it was Seonghwa’s phone that was connected to the car. He didn’t really know how to tell Hongjoong what was happening without the older getting mad.

“H-hyung, it’s Yeosang. Seonghwa-hyung is sitting in the passenger seat,” he explained, trying to sound as calm as he could.

“Why is he in the passenger seat?!” 

Yeosang winced at the sudden loudness and heard Seonghwa grumble too. Yeosang patted the older’s hair to comfort him.

“He’s down right now. Nothing that can’t be fixed, so don’t worry. I’m driving us back now.”

Yeosang could hear a sigh come from the other end. “Please be quick. I want to know exactly what happened,” Hongjoong commanded.

Yeosang nodded then realized Hongjoong couldn’t see him. “Right. On our way,” Yeosang opened the garage with the opener and started backing out of it, “How are the others?”

“Wooyoung woke up about an hour ago. He’s still very out of it. San and Mingi are still asleep. They probably woke up for a bit, but decided to sleep it off. Wooyoung actually asked for you, but you won’t get to talk to him until he’s better, okay?” Hongjoong informed.

Yeosang nodded to himself as he pushed the speed limit as much as he could. “Sounds good,” He paused for a bit and bit his lip, “I’m really sorry, hyung.”

“Why’re you sorry? Was it your fault that Seonghwa is incapacitated?” Hongjoong asked.

Yeosang gulped, “Pretty much.”

He heard Hongjoong make a hum on the line. “Well, we can talk about once you get home safely. We’ll talk then, okay?”

That’s what Yeosang loved about his leader. He never snapped at anyone, even when the situation really calls for it. He’s a calm decision maker. He knows where to put his anger. He won’t get mad at Yeosang for the moment, even though it was basically his fault for Hongjoong’s boyfriend becoming ill. 

“Okay, hyung. I’ll see you in a bit,” Yeosang confirmed, hanging up.

Boy, he really hoped that he didn’t mess up as much as he thought he did.


	2. Breathe Pt. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talks happen
> 
> Fighting happens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was finally able to finish it!!!
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy!
> 
> End notes might be a bit long, but oh well. You love me anyways.
> 
> ***See End Notes For Trigger Warning***

Yeosang sat in the downstairs living room with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. He was still having moments of coughing, and it really hurt.

He wasn’t thinking about that though. He was thinking about how he failed Hongjoong and Seonghwa. 

Yeosang looked at his phone to see that it was almost midnight. He let out a sigh and lowered his head again.

After a few moments, he felt the couch dip beside him and hand was placed on his back, slowly making comforting circles.

Yeosang looked up and saw Yunho. Jongho then sat down on Yeosang’s other side.

“Hongjoong is gonna come talk to you in a second,” Yunho informed. Yeosang could only nod in acknowledgment. 

Pretty soon, to Yunho’s word, Hongjoong walked in with a concentrated look on his face. He turned to Yeosang and Yeosang could feel himself shrink under the leader’s gaze.

“I really didn’t want that to happen, but I’m glad it wasn’t worse. You did alright, Yeosang,” Hongjoong said. Yeosang could tell Hongjoong was actually really disappointed. Big surprise, Yeosang was disappointed with himself.

“I messed up big time, I’m really sorry, hyung,” He choked out.

Yunho continued to rub his back. “Hey, it’s okay. We’ll get him next time. Try not to put too much pressure on yourself. You’ve only been a hero for a little over a year,” Yeosang could hear the hope in the older boy’s voice.

He shook his head. “Jongho’s been a hero for the shortest and he’s amazing. I can’t use my limited experience as an excuse,” he coughed, his breathing wheezy.

“I shouldn’t be a hero. I’m not improving and my confidence just keeps-” Yeosang cut off, coughing for a solid thirty seconds before it calmed down. He could feel Yunho’s hand stutter once the coughing began, but it picked back up once he stopped coughing.

“Hyung, you can’t be saying stuff like that. We all have our problems. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m far from perfect,” Yeosang turned his head to see Jongho’s eyes filled with a seriousness that was rare.

“I’ve been getting violent outbursts when I use my power. I don’t like it because it makes me feel like trash for a while. I can’t really control the outbursts and I don’t know what’s wrong. They hyungs don’t know what’s up with it either. Even if we figure it out, it’ll still take time to fix. It can’t just happen overnight,” Jongho explained, almost fuming.

Yeosang didn’t realize his mouth fell open from the revelation that Jongho had given him. He quickly shut it and tore his gaze away from the younger’s.

“I can’t fix my problems overnight, and neither can you, hyung,” Jongho said, a lot calmer.

Yeosang closed his eyes and willed himself not to tear up.

“Yeosang, even the people who have been doing this for a long time still mess up,” Yunho said softly. Yeosang missed the knowing look that Yunho gave Hongjoong.

The group sat in a comfortable silence after that until Hongjoong spoke up.

“Well, you guys should go get some rest. I’ll wake up if anything happens.”

No one argued and they all went their own ways. 

Jongho and Yunho had already taken the extra rooms. Yeosang didn’t want to take the actuals resident’s rooms, so he opted for the couch. He didn’t mind, it wasn’t like he was going to sleep super well anyways.

Hongjoong stayed there for a second. “I’ll grab you a blanket and pillows, Yeosang,” he said.

Yeosang nodded and waited for Hongjoong to get back by scrolling through his phone. It was a little after midnight. Yeosang usually stayed up pretty late, but he just felt so tired for some reason. All of his energy was probably used up in the coughing fits he had.

Hongjoong came back and handed him the pillows. Yeosang set the pillow against the armrest and laid down.

Hongjoong was about to leave when Yeosang spoke up. “Hyung, I’m really sorry,” Yeosang said softly, kind of hoping that Hongjoong wouldn’t hear.

“No need to be sorry, Yeosang. It happens.”

Yeosang sighed and murmured a goodnight to the leader, who then walked towards the medical room.

Yeosang tried to sleep as best as he could, but it only resulted in a couple hours of tossing and turning. 

Yeosang had finally fallen asleep when Hongjoong shook his shoulder.

“Hey, we gotta go. Plague was spotted near and abandoned apartment complex near the edge of the city,” their leader explained.

Yeosang quickly sat up and looked at his phone. It was about three-thirty in the morning. He stood up and pocketed his phone, following Hongjoong into the armory to grab his mask, vest, jacket, and boots. He slept in the rest of his uniform. 

They quickly went up stairs and saw Jongho waiting for them. Hongjoong threw a long-sleeve at the youngest. “Cover up more. We don’t want you getting sick so easily.” Jongho nodded and quickly put the shirt on under his other stuff.

The trio quickly said bye to a very sleepy Yunho and rushed to a car. They drove to an area that was pretty close to the given address and parked the car somewhere where it wouldn’t really be easy to steal from.

A gas station parking lot.

It was almost four in the morning, so no one was going to be there. That’s what they hoped, at least.

The abandoned apartment complex was about a block away, so the trio went to the rooftops and jumped until they saw the complex. Hongjoong just told them to keep watch on the different floors.

After several minutes, Jongho finally spoke up.

“Hyungs, I think I saw him. Fourth floor,” Jongho whispered to the two.

Hongjoong nodded. “Right. Phantom, smoke up and go scope it out,” he commanded.

Yeosang gulped at the sudden request, but nodded in acknowledgement, “Right, yeah. I’ll go do that.”

Before he could turn into smoke, he felt Hongjoong’s hand on his shoulder. He turned to look at the older with a weak smile. Not that Hongjoong could see it under his mask.

“Hey, you’ll be okay. You’re strong,” Hongjoong reassured.

Yeosang nodded and turned into smoke. He flew up closer to one of the fourth floor windows and peaked in. Jongho had pointed out the one next to him as the one where he saw Plague from. 

He seeped into the room through the small crack in the window and was careful not to make a noise.

The apartment room is completely empty. There wasn’t a single piece of furniture or art in sight. He moved closer to a doorway that either led to a bathroom or a bedroom. The door was already open and he peeked his head inside to see another empty room.

‘ _ Did Jongho actually see something or-’ _ Yeosang’s thoughts were cut off by something passing through him.

Yeosang quickly whipped around and saw Plague ready to throw another thing that looked cose to a brick. He jumped towards the other side of the room, still in smoke form and got into a readied stance.

“Well that was rude,” Yeosang said under his breath. Plague was still able to hear him mumble.

“This is for what you did to Klepto!” Plague shouted, throwing another brick. Yeosang dodged it to keep up the illusion that he was still solid. He hoped Plague didn’t see the earlier brick completely pass through him.

Yeosang realized what the villain had said and stood up with a hand on his hip. “Wait, what we did to Klepto? He blew himself up, you idiot,” Yeosang snapped back. 

Instead of a verbal response, Plague grabbed yet another brick (where the heck did he keep getting them from?), and threw them at Yeosang, who continued to dodge.

He pressed his earpiece as he dodged and contacted the other two heroes outside.

_ “Phantom? What’s up?”  _ Hongjoong asked through the earpiece.

“He’s in here. Help me out, will y-” Yeosang was interrupted by the feeling that he couldn’t breath. He begins coughing, which makes him turn out of his smoke form. He must’ve used up all of his smoke stamina already.

Yeosang was distracted long enough for Plague to come up to him and kicked him to the ground.

While he struggled to get back onto his feet, Plague rushed him and almost grabs the hero’s neck.

Thankfully, Yeosang was able to kick him away in time, but the villain’s fingertips managed to brush against part of Yeosang’s barely exposed neck. 

Yeosang never really liked being sick, mostly because of the constant feeling of needing to throw up. Plague had barely touched him, but he was instantly hit with vertigo and an unpleasant nauseous feeling. He curled in on himself as he still continued to cough, the new sick feeling making it worse.

He peeled his eyes open to see Plague almost lunging at him again, but being pulled back last second by Jongho, who threw the villain against the farther wall.

Hongjoong entered Yeosang’s field of view. Yeosang could see the older’s lips moving, but his ears were ringing too much for him to make out what the older was saying. That and Yeosang was dizzy enough that he couldn’t focus on their leader.

Yeosang’s ears cleared the ringing and he could finally hear Hongjoong.

“-antom, you good, bud?” The hero asked with concern.

Yeosang could only manage a nod. Hongjoong was about to help him up, but was interrupted by a yelp coming from the other side of the room. 

Yeosang’s vision focused in time for him to see Plague’s arm on Jongho’s wrist. The young hero seemed to faint immediately from how long the contact was held. 

Hongjoong quickly rushed over to get Plague off of him. Their leader’s skin seemed to glow an electrifying color as he ran towards the two.

Hongjoong kept the villain busy, so Yeosang decided to check on Jongho. He slowly crawled over to the youngest hero, dizziness almost gone, and checked his pulse.

Jongho seemed to be breathing heavily and had quite the fever, but nothing that would kill him. Yeosang let out a sigh of relief and patted the younger’s covered cheek with his gloved hand.

He then scooted himself closer to a nearby wall and used it to help himself stand up, albeit a little shakily. He turned his attention to the fight taking place and saw Hongjoong attempt to shock the villain. Plague whips around and grabs both of Hongjoong’s raised forearms, causing both men to cry out in pain.

Hongjoong from the sickness, and Plague from the shock that Hongjoong had given him. Both men fell to the floor, Plague rolling in pain and Hongjoong unconscious and breathing heavily.

Yeosang watched as Plague twitched while standing up. The villain faced Yeosang, causing the hero to freeze with some sort of fear that ran through him.

“Looks like the little hero couldn’t save his team. What a pity. Maybe hero isn’t the right term for you, hm?” Plague said, causing Yeosang to stiffen.

Everyone else had told him that he was a hero, even if he did make mistakes. There was no way that he would let his team down with this.

Yeosang straightened up, no longer using the wall to support himself, and glared at plague. His heavy breathing did make it difficult for him to hold his coughs back, but he still stared Plague down.

“I can, and I  _ will _ save my teammates, my friends, from someone like  _ you,” _ Yeosang sneered.

He charged towards Plague, catching the villain off guard, and grabbed his throat, pinning him against the wall. 

Plague wasn’t able to touch Yeosang’s exposed skin before Yeosang did something that he wasn’t always able to do successfully. 

Partial permeability.

He kept a solid grip on Plague with one arm and turned the other into smoke. He forced the smokey arm into Plague’s mouth and nose, making the villain inhale pure smoke. He squeezed his eyes shut from what Yeosang assumed was pain.

The use of the power was causing Yeosang to breath just as heavy as Plague was. He could almost feel a coughing fit come over him, but shook it off as best he could.

Yeosang didn’t register it until it had already happened, but Plague had blindly managed to brush his hand against Yeosang’s skin, probably his ear, or something. It caused another wave of dizziness to crash over Yeosang.

He shook his head to try and rid himself of the vertigo and forced more smoke down Plague’s throat. Finally, after several more painful seconds, the villain’s struggling came to an abrupt stop, making him go completely limp.

Yeosang realized and immediately dropped the villain to the floor, his arm turning back to normal. He stepped away, clutching at his struggling throat.

He couldn't breath.

He was able to take small, insufficient breaths, but nothing that would help him.

He began to feel even more dizzy. The sickness he willed away with adrenaline racing back to him to make his vision swim. The lack of oxygen only made matters worse. He ripped his mask off in an attempt to make the struggle less, but it didn’t help.

Yeosang could see black dots dancing across his already struggling vision. 

It took him a while to realize that he was also having an asthma attack at the same time. Just great.

He didn’t exactly realize it, but he felt himself fall to his hands and knees. 

He heaved out a couple more coughs and felt something warm run down his cheeks.

He looked to the side with blurry, dizzy vision to see Hongjoong still unconscious on the ground and through his blurry vision, Yeosang thought he saw Jongho’s eyes open and looking at him.

Yeosang lets out a couple more throat-scratching coughs until his throat felt like it was closing up all the way.

His heart was beating in his ears it was all he could hear. It was also much too fast for it to be okay.

He doesn’t know how long he’s sitting there until he’s on the ground. His vision completely turns black and Yeosang was out.

\---------------------------------------

Yeosang could tell that he was going in and out of consciousness from how the ceiling went from it’s darkish color to complete blackness.

He didn’t really register what was happening, but he could vaguely see flashes of Yunho standing above him, eyes glowing green. 

At one point he thought Seonghwa was standing above him as well, but that didn’t really make any sense to him, so he just assumed it was the lack of oxygen making him see things.

After a final wave of complete blackness, Yeosang opened his bleary eyes to see two pairs of concerned eyes staring down at him. Once he focused enough, he realized that it was both Yunho and Seonghwa.

Yeosang tried to smile, but he felt something weird on his face.

He panicked a little bit, not knowing what it is and tried to pry it off of his face.

He saw Seonghwa reach towards him and felt the older hold him down while Yunho frantically tried to explain.

“Hey, hey, calm down. That’s something that’s helping you breath right now. We don’t want a repeat of earlier, so please don’t try to take it off.”

Yeosang calmed down and realized that he wasn’t having a very hard time breathing and nodded.

“Anyways, I’m going to go check on the others. I’m really glad you’re okay,” Yunho said, and Yeosang knew he meant it.

Once the medic was gone, Yeosang turned his attention to his oldest teammate.

“Glad you’re back to the land of the living, Phantom,” Seonghwa said with what Yeosang assumed was a smirk behind his mask.

“I’m really glad you’re okay, but when I spoke with you earlier, I wasn’t expecting you to literally almost die. Thankfully, Titan was coherent enough that he realized he needed to call for help. The other three are still recovering a bit more, like I should be, but my sickness isn’t as bad right now. Titan called in time, and that’s all that matters.”

Yeosang could tell a look of confusion flashed across his face. “He was awake?”  _ I thought I imagined it,” _ Yeosang didn’t say the last part out loud.

“Well… I don’t know if we can count that as awake,” Seonghwa said with a chuckle, “But he did know what was happening. Once Prowler healed him, he told us all about what you did. Or at least what he could remember. That was very brave of you, Phantom,” Seonghwa finished with kind eyes and probably an equally kind smile on his face.

“Sure. Brave. You can say that, but look at what happened. It was probably more stupid than anything,” Yeosang said sadly.

“Hey, don’t say that about yourself. Charge’s way of dealing with it wasn’t the smartest, but it kind of worked. Besides, Brass wouldn’t be happy if he saw you so sad when we got back home,” Seonghwa pointed out.

That last point caught Yeosang’s attention. “He’s awake?” he asked hopefully.

“Again, I don’t know if we can really call it awake, but he was asking for you right before Titan called.”

“I’m touched,” Yeosang said sarcastically. It was sarcastic, but he actually felt his heart warmed up at the thought of his best friend wanting to see him.

Seonghwa laughed and helped Yeosang sit up, “He is gonna be mad at you for being that reckless though. He’ll finally have something to bug you about instead of him getting bugged.”

“I look forward to it,” Yeosang said with a laugh.

Yeah, he was definitely looking forward to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***Warning: Asthma Attacks , choking (if that really bothers you).***
> 
> This one is finally done. I really hope you guys enjoyed that, because I wasn't too sure how I felt about it. I'll be writing Mingi's next, then Hongjoong, then Seonghwa's. Then we'll be getting into the big story, heheheh.
> 
> I do have another work I'm really excited about. For a hint at what it is, let's just say space pirates. Hope that gets your attention. I'm starting to write those chapters ahead of time, so while I work on the big superhero work I'll have that to upload too.
> 
> THE LIGHTSTICK CAME OUT AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!! I wanna buy it. If anyone wants to buy if for me, I'm all for that charity.
> 
> Also, my cousin actually came up with a "fandom name" for me, which I thought was cute because I got the best comment that made my day, and he said I had fans, so y'all are called my Lil' Birdies now (it was almost Chirpeys, heheh.) It does sound a little bit like a rapper name, but oh well. I hope y'all are okay with me calling you that instead of noodles.
> 
> N E Ways, I hope y'all are having a good one! College is a thing for me, so please be patient. Such is the life of a college student.
> 
> Love you Lil' Birdies, hope you have a great one!!! <3<3<3

**Author's Note:**

> Hope y'all enjoyed!
> 
> Lemme know what you thought!!!
> 
> My Ko-fi: [ChirpB](https://ko-fi.com/chirpb)
> 
> My Twitter: [@Chirp_B](https://twitter.com/Chirp_B)


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